Fluridone — Principles of an Effective Aquatic Herbicide

When Fluridone is absorbed by a plant, the plant’s ability to generate energy through photosynthesis is restricted. If the plant can no longer convert the sun’s light into energy, then it ceases to grow and subsequently dies off.

Fluridone is a slow acting aquatic herbicide that diffuses throughout an entire water body and can take up to 30 days to begin controlling nuisance plants. However, water bodies treated with Fluridone often stay weed-free for 90 or more days. The reason is because Fluridone stays suspended in the water for extended periods of time. However, if water outflow is more than minimal, then Fluridone may not be as effective.

Because Fluridone gradually kills the plants over an extended period of time, the threat of oxygen depletion within the water body is avoided. Oxygen depletion occurs when a large amount of bio-mass within the water decomposes in a short period of time. Since Fluridone kills the plants gradually, the resulting bio-mass decomposes at varying times instead of all at once.

Fluridone is an excellent control option for duckweed. Duckweed is a difficult to control plant because it rapidly and explosively reproduces. Traditional aquatic herbicides are not very effective because if only a small amount of duckweed survives, it can re-infest the entire surface of the pond. But since Fluridone stays suspended in the water for long periods of time, most subsequent duckweed growth will also get treated.

All submerged plants such as hydrilla and watermilfoil can be treated with Fluridone. However, Fluridone is most effective in smaller bodies of water such as ponds. If you are only interested in treating the weeds around a dock area, then a contact herbicide such as Diquat would be much better suited for the treatment of hydrilla and milfoil.

Fluridone has no effect on algae. Because of this, we recommend using an algaecide such as Mizzen in combination with Fluridone. These products work great together and when combined they control the majority of all nuisances a pond will encounter. We have conveniently packaged both products together in our PONDRestore® Ultra and PONDRestore® kits.